Musical bow

(Fr.: arc musical, arc sonore; Ger.: Musikbogen; It.: arco sonoro; Sp.: arco musical), primitive chordophone shaped like a shooting bow. Opinion is still divided as to its origin. Sachs pointed to what appear to be the earliest forms of musical bow; they are 3 m. (10 ft.) long, sometimes idiochord, and useless for shooting. Others, including Kirby, have derived the musical bow from the shooting bow. Montandon believed in a reversal of this procedure. Fusion of function has obviously occurred in...